If 2020 has made the case for the necessity of perseverance, then Jared Wolfe might be Exhibit A. The Kentucky native and Murray State product turned pro in 2010 and played several seasons on mini-tours, then broke through at Q-School in 2013 — only to miss 13 of 15 cuts the following season on the Web.com Tour. But Wolfe persisted. And his persistence started paying off. In 2017, he tallied six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica, including a win. In 2018, he won again on the Latin tour; and in 2019, he piled up a combined nine top-10 finishes on the Latinoamérica and Mackenzie Tours. More importantly, Wolfe earned conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour through Q-School in December 2019 — and he made his chance count. With just four starts guaranteed in 2020, Wolfe won in his second event of the year at the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic and nailed down full status for the rest of the season. When COVID-19 shut down pro golf in March, Wolfe took a job in medical sales, where he marketed tests for the virus. And three months after the Korn Ferry Tour’s restart, Wolfe won again at the Wichita Open — leaving him one win short of a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour, and in prime position to earn his Tour card in 2021.
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LYING FOUR: This has been a crazy year for everybody, and for you too. You won early, and then the shutdown came, and in September you won again. For a lot of people, 2020 will be a year that they want to forget. When you look back on 2020, how will you remember it?
JARED WOLFE: For me, I’m gonna remember this as probably the strangest, weirdest year of my life. Having such success early, and then having it stopped, and then doing medical sales for three months, and then going back to playing golf and winning again — there’s just so many thing that you could think about for this year.
LYING FOUR: What is it like winning so early in the year? Do you feel like you have one foot in the door, or is there added pressure at that point to finish it off?
JARED WOLFE: For me, there was a lot of comfort, because I only had four starts guaranteed. So it was a sigh of relief. But second, I had to fight the urge to be comfortable. I worried about being too relaxed — “Oh OK, I’ve won, so this week doesn’t really matter if I don’t play well.” Just staying sharp. It wasn’t a pressure to keep winning, but it was more just pressure to stay sharp, stay focused, and keep going.
LYING FOUR: I know you turned pro in 2010, but the PGA Tour’s website doesn’t really show much about you until 2014. Tell me about your first four or five years as a pro.
JARED WOLFE: In those years, they didn’t have the PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latin America for us, so it was still the era of the mini-tours. When I was coming out of college, the Hooters Tour had Monday qualifiers, and guys who won those are on the PGA Tour now and have won majors. So I was trying to play in as many of those as I could. I played in Myrtle Beach in the winter for three years, down there with Roberto Díaz and a few other guys who are out playing still. And we’re down there playing, and sometimes the greens are frozen, and you’re playing with heaters and the cart covers on — not exactly the glamorous life that you see on TV. That’s basically what I was doing: just bouncing around to as many mini-tour events as I could.
LYING FOUR: How do you look back on those years? Was it hard? Was it fun?
JARED WOLFE: It was definitely character-building. You have to go out and play in the worst weather possible; it’s like playing college golf all over again, except this time you’re playing for a living. It kind of woke me up to what pro golf is about: if you can play well in that stuff, then you can play well at the next level, because more than likely you’re not gonna play in that kind of weather. I learned a lot about travel, and about how to do a lot of things on my own without a college coach helping me do everything — learning how to budget things, and how to get your own accommodations set up, registering for tournaments yourself, just simple things like that. And you get that out of the way before you get to the bigger stages.
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LYING FOUR: In 2014, you made two cuts on the Web.com Tour. When you look back on that time, what’s the biggest difference between now and then? What does Jared Wolfe in 2020 know that Jared Wolfe in 2014 didn’t?
JARED WOLFE: Really just belief and confidence. Obviously, the physical abilities have grown; I’m a lot better player than I was then. But mentally, just understanding that you don’t have to be perfect, and just understanding golf better. And realizing how to turn bad rounds into not-so-bad rounds, so that you’re making the cut instead of missing it: “OK, you’re not gonna win this week, but finish 25th instead of 70th,” or something like that. And I kinda had to learn that too in 2018; I played something like 21 events, and I think I made 13 cuts. I couldn’t finish outside of the top 40, really. So at different stages, just learning different things — not only learning how to win, but how to play the whole year.
LYING FOUR: It’s interesting to hear you say that, because I’ve talked to younger players who have a lot of game, but who say the same thing: the part that they feel is missing is the mental part. What was that process like for you? How did you get from Point A to Point Z?
JARED WOLFE: A lot of ups and downs. I remember a talk with my dad in the last year or two of the mini-tour stuff, and he was like, “You’re not having any fun. You’re slamming stuff, throwing stuff — you look miserable. I’m not gonna continue to support you if you’re not gonna have fun.” That was one. I remember my wife was at an event a few years later, and we had the same kind of conversation. And then I’ve had some people say some things over the years that have woken me up to how to think and how to act, how to approach the game and how to be in the right mindset to succeed. I had a failure mindset every time I went to the golf course: I kept thinking of everything that could go wrong and never anything else. That’s a big change.
LYING FOUR: Was there ever a low point when you thought, “Man, I’m not sure this is gonna work out?”
JARED WOLFE: I think the first time was that time my dad was talking to me. It made me realize that I wasn’t having any fun. I was a couple of years out of college; I could change course and go find something else to do. So I had to take a little time to think about it. Another low time — I think it was after that 2014 season — I didn’t know if I had what it took to play out here. I obviously tried, but I thought, “Let’s take what we learned and see if we can make it any better. If not, then it’s time to go.” I’d say those were the lowest points.
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LYING FOUR: Looking back over your results for the last few years, it looks like something clicked for you early in 2019 — you won on the Latin America Tour, and you won in Canada. What happened?
JARED WOLFE: Honestly, I could take it back to 2017. That’s where, for me, I felt a change. That was down on the Latin Tour. I think I finished second in an Argentina event, and it seemed like from there on out, I started having this confidence — “I can actually do this. I can succeed out here. I can play.” It slowly got better. I won another one in ’18, and then ’19 hit: we won the first event out, and I thought, “Wow, we’re really validating that I can do this.” From there on out, my mindset went from “let’s try to survive out here and make the cut” to “let’s get in contention to win as many weeks as we possibly can.” That mindset change and belief — it automatically takes out of your mind the thought of, “What’s the cutline?” Instead of that, your mind goes to, “Where’s the leader at? How can we catch them? What can we do?” And surprisingly, you see how often you’re not anywhere near the cutline and you’re up in contention. I think that was probably the biggest change that clicked in ’19.
LYING FOUR: Did that carry over when you came back on the Korn Ferry Tour this year? Did you feel like you were in a position to contend and win from the word “go,” or did you think there might be an adjustment period?
JARED WOLFE: Going into the Bahamas, I knew I was playing well, but I’d never had success out here. I didn’t know what that looked like, and I didn’t know how to translate that over. It kind of came as a surprise to me at that second event; I thought, “I know I’m playing well, but I just don’t know if that means it’s good out here.” So I kind of changed my mindset and thought, “Well, I’m just gonna play like I know I can play and see what happens,” instead of wondering the whole time whether it’d be good enough. And it wound up being great. Coming back after the COVID break, there was definitely an adjustment there, because we hadn’t played a tournament in three months, and it was just really strange coming back — and then the first one back was at my home golf course that I’ve played a thousand times, and I played terrible [laughs].
LYING FOUR: What about heading into Wichita? Did you feel like you were close?
JARED WOLFE: I did, yeah. The previous six to eight events, I’d played really well for 68 out of 72 holes or something like that — I had a nine in Columbus, and I had a triple at this event, or I made a couple of bogeys with wedges, or something like that. But I kept thinking, “Why are we finishing 40th? Why are we finishing 50th? What’s keeping us from getting back up to the top?” And I noticed that it was just a couple of small things that were keeping it from happening. They weren’t fundamental issues. It wasn’t the driver, and it wasn't the wedges — it was more of a gameplan thing, so I didn’t have to change anything on the range. I just had to change a couple of things about how I approached a golf course. And that was my goal. I did that in Chicago, with the exception of one hole again. And then we had an off week to think about it more. I didn’t expect it to manifest that quickly, in Wichita, but I felt like we’d be close to contention that week because I felt so good going into it.
LYING FOUR: So where do you go from here? Even though they’re not handing out cards for another 12 months, obviously you’re really well set up from here. How do you stay sharp over the next 12 months?
JARED WOLFE: I think it’s not changing anything up. Obviously, one more and we go automatically. But you’re not really focusing too much on that: you’re taking each event as its own thing. Any given week, I could try to relax my mind, but each week is just as important as the next one. I think trying to stay focused now will be easier than it was after the first win, because that carrot’s sitting right in front of you now with that third one.
LYING FOUR: And looking ahead, what’s next? What’s the biggest challenge for you as you look ahead to the big tour?
JARED WOLFE: I think it’s just gonna be getting comfortable. And it’s gonna be trying not to get so excited about the courtesy cars and all the free food and all the things that come with it — because I know I’ll enjoy those things and think they’re great. And that might take focus away from the golf course. So I’ve gotta rein it in and know that we’re there to play golf at the golf course, and all those other perks are there for us to enjoy, but that’s not supposed to distract me from what we need to do each week.
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